Minor foot ailments such as sprains, tears and swelling are common conditions suffered by athletes and runners in particular. Often, such conditions are self treated without breaking an athlete's training regime. Common recommendations for self-treatment include the application of heat before activity to warm up the foot tissues, application of ice after activity to reduce swelling, and stretching the tissues both before and after activity to avoid tearing of the foot tissues.
The prior art typifies these various approaches to solving the above problems. For example, Cropley, in U.S. Pat. No. 647,294 teaches a hot water bag into which feet may be inserted. While this invention provides means for thermal therapeutic relief, it requires the user to be immobile.
Marcellus, in U.S. Pat. No. 1,257,086 offers a modification of the above through a hot water boot. The invention disclosed therein provides therapeutic relief and allows the user to be mobile. It does not address treatment of injuries via ice or cold temperature therapy.
Weintraub et al in U.S. Pat. No. 4,005,531 teaches foot coolers containing a removable refrigerant device adapted to provide cool temperature comfort to user's feet. The invention is silent with respect to the treatment of injury, and fails to teach or suggest the use of a hot insole for treatment of injury.
Cherniak in U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,750 teaches a modular orthopedic sandal that is intended to provide rigid orthopedic support for particular regions of the foot, but provides no suggestion that the device is designed for hot/cold therapy.
Golden Age Products advertises gel filled insoles to cushion feet when walking. Again, however, there is no disclosure with respect to hot/cold treatment of foot injuries.
Thus, each of the above teachings fails to address the overall problem of hot and cold treatment of foot injuries. While each addresses either hot or cold treatments, none teach apparatus or footwear adaptable for both. Thus there is a need in the art to provide a convenient means for providing hot and cold treatment of foot injuries. Further there is a need to provide such a therapeutic device that is easily convertible between both types of treatment.